'The Daily Show' Gets Down and Dirty

Late-night host Trevor Noah got in a pretty heated debate Wednesday night with The Blaze’s Tomi Lahren on ‘The Daily Show’. Throughout his years hosting the show, Jon Stewart had Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly as his friendly foil. While diametrically opposed, they frequently appeared on each other’s shows and were able to laugh together.

And now, successor Trevor Noah may have found his own Bill O’Reilly in ‘The Blaze’ conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, who appeared on Wednesday night’s show. They engaged in a spirited but respectful debate and managed not to talk over each other, a feat that’s become all but extinct on cable news the last few years.

Thursday morning, as fans on both sides of the political spectrum heard about the interview, Lahren went from combative to conciliatory. After a late-night twitter swipe at “liberal snowflakes”, she had another message for both her fans and his: “Trevor Noah is not an (expletive) or a jerk. I’m not an (expletive) or an (expletive). We are people with opposing views, that’s it.” Noah extended an open invitation for her to come back. “Our goal should be to destroy these ‘bubbles,’ not each other.”

“I’m actually not that angry,” she told Noah. “It’s just that there are things that need to be said and a lot of people are afraid to say ’em.” “You can’t say you’re not angry,” he pressed. “This is what you’re known for. It’s a strange thing to say, ‘I’m not angry’ but that’s like Ellen saying, ‘I don’t like dancing.’ Yeah, you do, Ellen, you do. You are angry, about everything, it seems.”

“Sometimes, people just need to be called on their (expletive),” Lahren said calmly. “Protesting a free and fair election? You’re going to get called on your (expletive) a little. It’s time to clear the street, accept reality and move on.”

Noah called Lahren out at times, especially regarding her previous comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, whom she compared to the Ku Klux Klan on Twitter. “For someone who’s not racist,” he pointed out, “you have to spend a lot of time a lot of time saying, ‘I’m not racist.'”